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Vermeer and the Delft School
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Description
Potter was formally connected with Delft for a brief period during his short life. He joined the guild there in August 1646 but by 1649 was living in The Hague, on a street facing the fields between the two cities. Despite their barnyard or bucolic ambiance his pictures appealed to upscale clients, including Count Johan Maurits (for whom the Mauritshuis was built) and Princess Amalia van Solms.
Potter has been credited with prodding the Delft school into the light of day. This exaggeration pays unconscious tribute to the influence that landscape painting had in the 1650s on townscapes, genre scenes, and architectural views (Emanuel de Witte has been said to have painted church interiors like a landscapist). In this deliberately appealing picture not only the intense sunlight and silhouetting effects but also the unpredictable orderliness of the composition anticipate the works of De Witte, De Hooch, and Vermeer.
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Description